Rambling, rumbling, rumination

NBI: The FBI Version – Who Am I?

Traditionally, these blog things start out with some sort of introductory post. It’s sort of the text equivalent of a “hello, I’m Bob the Fish” that you might offer at a social gathering in real life before going on to the preconversation chatter about the weather or the hostess, then slowly weaving in to any other relevant topics. Of course, this isn’t always necessary, as I’ve certainly had conversations in stores (hardware stores, usually… it’s a guy thing) where no names were exchanged. Still, it’s nice to give a sense of who you are to begin with, if only to set a tone for any later writing. A blog that starts with a “Hello World” post will read differently from a blog starting with a “Did You See What SHE Was Wearing?” post, though either is just fine.

I jumped into the blogging world by commenting on other blogs, like Big Bear Butt‘s place (he’s the one that really prompted me to start blogging, as he appreciated my comments, thereby making me think I might have something to offer… though I should probably post my rather verbose entries on my own pages), Spinksville, Wolfshead, Muckbeast, Stylish Corpse, Capn’ John’s and I Has PC. The administrators of these and other blogs have been gracious, engaging folk, and I think of them as friends that I’ve never met in person. Their interests are varied, though there’s the common thread of MMOs that wound up leading me to each of them. They don’t all get along with each other all the time. They don’t have shared politics, philosophies or schemes for world domination. (Not sure on that last one, actually.) And yet, they all have great writing skills, strong personalities and interesting things to say. And, well… I’m pretty sure I never read any of their introductory posts. Sometimes, it’s perfectly fine to just hit the ground running. After my quick intro post, I wound up posting this juggernaut of an article: Apple Picking.

That’s fairly indicative of my style. I’ve done a lot of writing in my day, and I tend to explore implications and dig into game design decisions and theory. It’s probably a bit dry, a bit verbose, and the language is a bit esoteric and archaic in places. In sum, though, that’s my “voice”, so that’s how my posts settle out of the mental morass of ideas that I itch to get in type. Sometimes, it’s as much about getting thoughts down “on paper” as it is about offering some thoughts to the internet. It’s my experience that the act of formulating thoughts into a cohesive bit of text tends to refine said thoughts and make them more easily remembered and more easily explained.

At the end of the day, writing a blog is something you do because you want to, and what you write should be a reflection of that. If nothing else, you are your own audience, and if writing is a drudge or a bore, it’s OK to do something else. If you’re having fun writing and engaging with any commenters who happen to wander by, hey, that’s icing on the cake.

So really, you don’t need to answer the question “who am I?” right away, or even explicitly at all. Most of us operate under a nom de plume anyway, the digital equivalent of trucker or ham radio “handles”, and that’s how we are known. That’s part of the beauty of this internet thing; I’m Tesh, the guy who writes this blog. My real name isn’t important, nor are silly things like skin color, weight, clothing, or any of the other superficial things that people are judged and prejudged by. My articles can stand on their own merit or lack thereof, my ideas and my writing have a purity of presentation that might not be possible in other venues. To be sure, there’s a sense of common courtesy and even subtle undercurrents of online politics and agendas that one may run afoul of, but for the most part, this blogging thing is remarkably clear of a lot of cruft that other modes of communication deal with. There’s just something… pristine about words on a “page” that makes for a nice philosophical playground.

Who am I? I’m Tesh. Who are you? Well, that’s up to you. May as well make the most of it.

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30 Responses

And I never realized it until I read this but my mind has a tendency to assume that every text in english I read (assuming it is not one where it was written by someone whose grasp of the language isn’t so good) is american.

It is not intentional nor is it because I have any preference for americans in particular (and to be clear, I don’t have any particular dislike either!). It is probably because I spent so many years playing on american servers that I just assume it now. I probably would assume that everyone who writes in english would be british if I played on british servers, for instance.

If someone tells me then they are not american, I will find that initially interesting but it soon becomes as important as something like their eye color. And my interest returns to what the person has to say, be it in in-game chat or reading blogs.

I have a similar tendency, actually. I naturally read “American” English as being authored by an American, and there are some “Britishisms” that pop up now and then that make me think someone is British. Much to my surprise, then, to run into someone like Victor Stillwater who writes in excellent English, but who is on the other side of the globe. It’s nice, actually, to just be able to take someone’s words and run with the conversation, rather than worrying about where they are. If it comes up later, hey, that can make for another interesting conversation, but I like that the common ground is the text and maybe shared topics, not geography or any other superficial aspect.

Hi, I’m Modran, and I reaaaaally should get back to updating my blog and commenting your articles :p. It’s been what…? A year and a half? Yeah something like that…
And take away my blog, what am I ? Why, a genius, multimillionaire, playboy, philanthropist, glad you asked !
(Oh, by the way, I’m very honored to be appearing twice in your blogroll as Random Lives and Modran’s Random Miles 😉 )

Ah, here we run into the embarrassing part. You were in that list at one point, but I moved you and Ixobelle and some others to next week’s post. I’m not even sure why, except to say that writing these has been even more fractured than usual, and I lose the chain of thought I have as I bounce between tasks during the week. So… sorry! 🙂